The open-source, peer-to-peer marketplace software OpenBazaar officially went live few days ago, marking a major milestone for the long-in-development project. Powered by the use of bitcoin as a payments method, OpenBazaar is intended to serve as a decentralized alternative to marketplaces like eBay, in which a central entity acts as a money clearing house as well as an arbiter for behavior.
OpenBazaar, by contrast, uses the distributed bitcoin block chain to handle payments, and users can act as judges to resolve disputes or hire their own mediators. Yet within hours of launch, what appear to be listings for drug-related products have already begun to appear. OpenBazaar listing tracking tool BazaarBay.org still lists some of the now-removed offerings.
The big question is: Are they the real deal? Brian Hoffman, project lead for OB1, the development startup that oversees work on the OpenBazaar protocol said his team is aware of the listings, and that the listings boil down to two sources: legitimate vendors taking a risk in an attempt to sell their wares via OpenBazaar, and trolls simply looking to stir up trouble.